the lunch was months from when the decision was made, and lunch makes a good interview tool and makes a person more at ease/trusting but so does sending a pretty young woman to answer questions. Sure it makes thing run smoothly during the interview but 8 months of thinking, investigating and paper work will far out weigh an hour and a half of lunch

It was just an innocent "interview" lunch, to set up an even more innocent all-expenses-paid "interview" cruise, to negotiate the conditions of a most innocent job "interview" - which would be held in a newly built summer home - for a lucrative consulting position which was so innocent, it would make the virgin Mary look like a filthy harlot.

My wife is a public employee, so let me explain how this works. Every so often politicians get caught taking something from some special interest. Their response is to pass a tough new ethics bill. The catch is that it doesn't apply to *them*, it applies to public employees. So things get a little ridiculous.

When we bought our house, the realtor tried to buy us lunch and my wife had to refuse, because under state law for practical purposes she's not allowed to take gifts from anyone she's not related to.

This was the City of London police, who are traditionally less prone to corruption than the Met*. Because they investigate sensitive fraud cases and the like, and because many of the criminals in the City have vast resources, the expected standard of police behaviour is much higher. If this officer did not file a proper report on the lunch, he should have done. (I don't know whether he did or not, so I have no opinion on that aspect of the matter.)

*To understand the Metropolitan Police, read the history of the Praetorian Guard in Rome. Boris Johnson knows his classics, and I suspect that is one reason why he fired the head of the Met soon after taking office.

I guess what you mean is they're more careful than the Met and don't get caught since their advisers and bribers are way more clever than the Met's? There's never a case of "no corruption at the Police force", there'always a "not caught yet-corruption case".

Anonymous because its the Murdoch's and the police we are talking about and its always safest that way.

If I ever got that paranoid, I don't think I'd post anything on the internet at all. "Anonymous Coward" is not an absolute guarantee of anonymity you know, it's just to make it harder for insane slashdot stalkers to annoy you. I doubt if a terrorist published something serious here the security services would have too much trouble finding out who the AT was.

There are rules about public servants accepting hospitality. In my department, we're not even allowed to let someone buy us a few sandwiches for a stand-up buffet.

It sounds rather strict, but it's proven that it skews your judgement - it's human nature to feel obligated to someone who does something nice for you, something that pharmaceutical reps understand only too well, with their habits of feeding doctors well and providing them with plenty of (branded) free geegaws like laser pointers, pens, etc.

If they weren't biased because of a lunch, why would they be getting bought one?

Don't forget it might also be a question of the lunch buyer acquiring a subtle blackmailing tool.

"Oh dear, wouldn't it be a pity if I reported our lunches to your superior officer, on the off chance you forgot to record them properly? How would that look? Do you want your kids to have a dad who was sacked for corruption? Probably best to play a bit nice with me then."

If a police officer is biased because of a lunch, then we're really fucked.

If I were being investigated for some street scam defrauding tourist out of cash, could I offer to buy the guy investigating me a flight to a beach resort that I'm staying at and put him up in accommodation costing me a couple of Â£1,000 while I explain my side of the story?

That would clearly call the investigating officers integrity into question. Even if it didn't effect his decisions in any way, it just doesn't look go

According to Hanff, the officer taken out by Phorm in 2010 was overseeing the initial probe and was asked by the force to investigate the company after the CPS requested it take another look at the case.

How many times does a police officer, during an investigation, go out to dinner with the subject of that investigation?

I could be showing my naivete but I don't think it happens that often. Is it a common thing?